Excerpt from The History of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia Gentlemen - When I was requested by your predecessors to write a history of Fredericksburg, I regarded it as quite an honor, and in the discharge of the duty I have found great pleasure. Not that the material needed was ready at hand and the task was easy, but because I found so many of the best of our citizens eager to assist in getting the material together, that had been laid away for ages, and placing it at my disposal. Moreover, their kind words very much encouraged me, and I wish I could here record their names, but as it might not be proper, I take much pleasure in extending to them my grateful thanks. The records concerning the town reach back only to the close of the Revolutionary war. If Major Lawrence Smith, who constructed the fort and governed the settlers by military law or "as a county court might do," ever kept any records of his acts, we have been unable to find them, and the same is true of the Trustees who had the managment of the town from the time it was "laid out by law," until it was chartered by the Legislature of Virginia. Therefore, much that is found in the following pages in reference to "the olden time," came from families who had preserved it in various forms for many generations. In presenting this history it is not claimed that all is said about Fredericksburg that could have been said or that incidents have not been related as others have heard them, but it is believed that all important events have been referred to and incidents given as they have been related to us by those well informed and who were regarded as authority on such matters. Nor is there any claim made for originality. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.